Research seminar: 'God is with us': Russian Orthodox discourses abour war and the West
- Date: Monday 13 October 2025, 15:00 – 17:00
- Location: Michael Sadler Grant Room (3.11)
- Type: Seminars and lectures, Seminar series
- Cost: Free
Dr Patrick Lally Michelson presents a paper for the War Studies and Politics, Diplomacy and International History research groups in the School of History.
About the paper
Taking the war in Ukraine as its starting point, this talk offers a genealogy of Christian tropes and symbols invoked by members of the Russian Orthodox Church to distinguish “Holy Russia” from its “godless enemies”, in this case, the satanic West, and to narrate Russia’s providential role in securing God’s victory on earth.
About the speaker
Patrick Lally Michelson is an associate professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University specializing in the intellectual history of modern Russian Orthodoxy and European Christianity. He is the author of Beyond the Monastery Walls: The Ascetic Revolution in Russian Orthodox Thought, 1814–1914 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1917), the co-editor of volume of essays about Russian Orthodox thought, and the author of several related articles. Michelson’s present research focuses on the ways in which members of the Russian Orthodox Church have thought and talked about war and the West since Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812.
Find out more about the War Studies and Politics, Diplomacy, and International History research groups in the School of History.